The behavior of agricultural commodity markets can arguably result in markedly asymmetric price cycles, that is, downward cycles of substantially different length and breadth than upward cycles. This study assesses whether asymmetric-cycle models can enhance the understanding of the dynamics and provide for a better forecasting of U.S. soybeans and Brazilian coffee prices. The forecasts from as...

The downward and upward closures of a regular language L are obtained by collecting all the subwords and superwords of its elements, respectively. The downward and upward interiors of L are obtained dually by collecting words having all their subwords and superwords in L, respectively. We provide lower and upper bounds on the size of the smallest automata recognizing these closures and interior...

Converging evidence suggests that understanding our first-language (L1) results in reactivation of experiential sensorimotor traces in the brain. Surprisingly, little is known regarding the involvement of these processes during second-language (L2) processing. Participants saw L1 or L2 words referring to entities with a typical location (e.g., star, mole) (Experiment 1 & 2) or to an emotion (e....

With each superinuitionistic logic (si-logic), we associate its downward and upward subframizations, and characterize them by means of Zakharsyachev’s canonical formulas, as well as by embedding si-logics into the extensions of the propositional lax logic PLL. In an analogous fashion, with each si-logic, we associate its downward and upward stabilizations, and characterize them by means of stab...

We studied numerically the validity of the fluctuation relation introduced in Evans et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 71, 2401-2404 (1993)] and proved under suitable conditions by Gallavotti and Cohen [J. Stat. Phys. 80, 931-970 (1995)] for a two-dimensional system of particles maintained in a steady shear flow by Maxwell demon boundary conditions [Chernov and Lebowitz, J. Stat. Phys. 86, 953-990 (1997)...

To study the effects of frequency shifts on vowel identification, a high-quality vocoder (STRAIGHT) was used to process a set of vowels in /hVd/ syllables spoken by two adult males, two adult females, and two children. Vowel identification accuracy was reduced when the spectrum envelope was shifted upward by a factor of 2.0, or downward by a factor of 0.6. Upward shifts produced a smaller decli...

The paper considers several issues related to efficient use of tree automata in formal verification. First, a new efficient algorithm for inclusion checking on non-deterministic tree automata is proposed. The algorithm traverses the automaton downward, utilising antichains and simulations to optimise its run. Results of a set of experiments are provided, showing that such an approach often very...

The present study examined whether individuals’ endorsement of intergroup context moderates the social comparison process not only in the intergroup upward comparison condition, but also in the downward comparison condition, by experimentally manipulating the direction of intergroup comparison and interpersonal comparison for participants who appraise their in-group as high or low. As predicted...

To study the effects of frequency shifts on vowel identification, a high-quality vocoder (STRAIGHT) was used to process a set of vowels in /hVd/ syllables spoken by two adult males, two adult females, and two children. Vowel identification accuracy was reduced when the spectrum envelope was shifted upward by a factor of 2.0, or downward by a factor of 0.6. Upward shifts produced a smaller decli...